Good Fungus, Bad Fungus

Fungi play important roles in a garden, both as hero and villain. I went away for a week-long vacation, and just before I left, I noticed yellow spots on some tomato leaves.

Insect damage, heat stress, or early blight? All of the above?

This looks more like the beginning of early blight.

When I came back on Monday, it was clear that this was early blight, characterized by expanding yellow spots that spread to nearby leaves. I removed all the affected leaves this morning and will spray with copper this evening, when it's less likely to harm beneficial insects like bees. For those of you who are concerned about the march of late blight across the state (last I heard, it had moved as far east as Concord), here's a guide for diagnosing your tomatoes and some clear pictures of early blight.

I also noticed on Monday that a lot of the corn had fallen over. My husband said it was due to the high winds we'd been experiencing. Today, I tried to tie up a lot of the corn with string, and I noticed some sort of infection on the stalks. After some investigation, it looks like it's Gibberella stalk rot.

Gibberella is characterized by pinkish streaks on the stalks, which soften and fall over.

Looks like this stalk is starting to split.

Some stalks have broken off altogether.

I'm going to check with other local farmers to see if my diagnosis is correct. I'm hoping not, because there's basically nothing you can do for Gibberella except try to keep the corn strong with frequent water and fertilizer. I'll have to rotate the corn in a big way next year. And I will likely switch from the heirloom varieties I chose this year to a fungus-resistant hybrid  next year. Thus far, only the Extra Early Golden Bantam pictured above seems to be affected. The Hooker's Sweet Indian corn, a red-kernelled variety, seems to be mostly unaffected. Then again, it's setting ears at only 3 feet tall! Maybe it's outrunning the Gibberella.

So those, along with a light dusting of fungus on my summer squash, are the current fungal villains in the garden. Now for the heroes:

Look carefully. Can you spot the Japanese Umbrella Inky Caps?

Unidentified Mushrooms. Lawnmower's Mushrooms? Dunce Caps? Witch's Hats? Who knows?

Mushrooms can be beneficial in a garden. The Japanese Umbrella Inkys help break down decaying matter, such as these wood chips in the garden paths, and make those nutrients available to the veggies. I often find Alcohol Inkys in the straw, performing the same function, but these mushrooms have such a short lifespan that, by the time I have gotten around to fetching the camera, they have generally deliquesced.

Other mushrooms exist symbiotically with the veggies, making minerals in the soil available in exchange for nutrients. I'm hoping that's what those little tan mystery mushrooms are doing. I haven't been able to positively identify them as yet. I keep loaning out my mushroom reference books and only have Fascinating Fungi of New England available, which is a great beginner's reference but not at all comprehensive. A comprehensive reference would be massive, given that mycologists estimate that there are around 20,000 species of mushrooms in North America alone.

Anyway, those little tan mushrooms are in beds all over the garden, but they seem to particularly like the pumpkins and grow happily in the shade of those broad squash leaves. If there are any mycologists reading this, the cap is bell-shaped, the gills are free, crowded, and a light cinnamon color, and there's a slight bulb at the base but no root. I'm working on a spore print now and will report on the results tomorrow, but I'm guessing they will also be cinnamon-y, like the gills.

Abundance

The garden, along with the weather, is heating up. We've been happily harvesting kale and cukes and lettuce for a couple of weeks now, but in the last week, we've also been getting zucchini, summer squash, and new potatoes, and we've begun carefully harvesting dill. Here are some before and after pics...

Basil on June 27th

Basil on July 9th

First Zucchini Harvested on June 27th

Jumbo Zucchinis and Pickling Cucumbers Harvested on July 11th

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! I delivered that box of zukes and cukes to the Beverly Bootstraps food pantry last Wednesday, along with some lettuce and yellow crookneck squash:

Donation to Beverly Bootstraps

Nice, Plump Yellow Crookneck Squash

I just went through the garden and harvested everything we had ripe except kale (they apparently have trouble getting people to take kale, alas). I brought it to the food pantry, where a nice volunteer asked me where it was from, and I said, "Um, my garden?" All three volunteers in the place turned around and stared at me. Then one woman broke the silence and said, "That's so kind of you." I shrugged and told them it was more than we could use, but inside, I was astonished.

Doesn't anyone else do this? Almost all of the other food there was neatly bagged and labeled, and while I was there, a large truck from Richardson's Dairy pulled up to deliver milk. I guess the vast majority of donations come from corporations and organizations. I know an intrepid middle schooler at Harborlight Montessori School was collecting non-perishables during the school year. But apparently, individuals never make food donations, or perhaps not donations they've grown themselves. And that seems terribly sad and broken, somehow. So if you find yourself with more zucchini than you know what to do with this year, I encourage you to find a local food pantry and donate.

Anyway, they weighed our produce, and it came to 16 pounds. They had me sign for it and indicate whether I'd like to receive a thank you note from them (I declined), then handed me a receipt. Woot! I can't wait to bring another box full.

With this heat, though, that may be a while. I checked this morning, and most of the zucchini are turning yellow and shriveling up on the vine. I will increase the watering schedule to an hour every morning and evening and hope that turns things around. Everything else seems to be growing even faster. The husk cherries now have palpable cherries in the husks, the giant pumpkin is growing like mad, and the corn and mammoth sunflowers are racing for the sky. Birds have found our strawberries and seem to be eating them in the early mornings, but there weren't all that many left anyway. And those first few new potatoes were scrumptious. We're pretty happy with the Bintje variety, and the Yukon Golds are pretty much as expected. Next, we'll try some Rose Finns. And I'm guessing that in another week or two, we'll start having ripe tomatoes. Ahhhh, the anticipation!

Catching up: Sustainability Guild

Oof! I got sick two weeks ago, then I spent all last week catching up. Now I'm back up to speed and catching up on my blogging, and there's a whole lot to cover: bean tunnel, new potatoes, gigantic zucchini, escaping pumpkins. Today, I'm going to focus on the Sustainability Guild.

Two Mondays ago, we started transporting all of our remaining seedlings to the Sustainability Guild. On June 25th, Alex loaded up the Prius and drove out to Dorchester. I took these photos before we loaded.

Plenty left to give.

A few gaps where we'd managed to sell seedlings at the Beverly Farmers' Market.

Laura Kozar, Strategic Projects Manager at the Sustainability Guild, came that afternoon and loaded up her car as well. The following morning, she came back with a ZipVan and Renato Riccioni, Sustainability Guild's Creative Director. We all gang-tackled the greenhouse and packed their van.

Sustainability Guild van is nearly full.

Officially stuffed! Off to Dorchester.

l-r: Alex, Renato Riccioni, and Laura Kozar prepare to close up the van for the long drive back.

Happy High Ground Farmers, Alex and Jenise Aminoff

And why are we looking so happy?

Nothing left on this side but the peppers and beans in their EarthTainers.

Even after all that, we still had a few seedlings left.

So Alex loaded up the car again on Wednesday morning and took all the remaining seedlings to Dorchester.

Even more than having an empty greenhouse, we are delighted that the seedlings will be put to excellent use. Laura described the some of the planned uses for the seedlings: planting in public urban spaces where anyone can just walk up and pick a tomato, vertical plantings on "living walls," and more. Hopefully, we'll hear more from them on how our seedlings are doing in their new urban home.

Save the Honeybee

Hi, folks. There's a petition going around requesting that the EPA ban Clothianidin, a pesticide that is suspected of contributing to the massive honeybee die-off we've been experiencing in the U.S. Clothianidin is already banned in several countries, including Germany where it is produced (there's something very odd about that). So if you like apples, blueberries, and pumpkins, all of which depend on bees for pollination, please consider signing the petition.

First Harvest

My friend Denise and I dashed out into the pouring rain and harvested kale for dinner tonight, our first harvest from the garden. We took just one or two leaves from each plant and filled the colander.

Our daughter Annelise painted the kale marker as a birthday present for Alex. We'll put it out when the rain stops.

Alex prepares to cook the kale that he himself planted.

In general, the garden is looking stupendous. The recent heat and rain have really gotten everything growing, including, of course, the weeds.

Weedy but happy.

The really tall stuff on the left is the potatoes, half of which I managed to bury a bit more yesterday before I ran out of soil. Oops. I'm still trying to decide whether to get more soil for the other three rows of taters. On the right, you can see our bean tunnel. Made out of two cattle panels, it is just high enough for Alex, at 6'4", to walk through. We are working on covering the paths with cardboard, and I'm slowly weeding the beds, laying down paper between the plants, and covering it with straw to provide both weed barrier and moisture retention. You can see this in the front central bed of peppers.

Here's Alex's favorite recipe for kale:

Alex's Central African-New England Kale and Sardine Stew

2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 colanders full of fresh kale leaves, chopped
1 can skinless, boneless sardines in olive oil
1/4 cup raisins or currants
1/4 cup pine nuts
cayenne pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

Over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic until transparent, and season with salt and pepper. Add the kale and cook it down. Add the sardines, raisins or currants, pine nuts, and cayenne. Serve hot over brown rice or pasta and top with parmesan cheese.

Alex recommends vinho verde with this dish.

Catching Up

Whew! 97 degF here in Beverly today. It made me wilt, but the garden is loving the heat.

The farmers' market is over. We did about as well this week as last. Seedling sales are done; we're donating all the remaining seedlings to the Sustainability Guild for use in urban gardens around Dorchester. I just have to do an inventory first so that I can run my expenses properly.

The Great Chile Experiment is begun. I pulled up the peas last week and harvest the last pods, then planted two NuMex Espanola Improved chile peppers in the newly cleared EarthTainer. Then I harvested all the kale from another EarthTainer and planted two NuMex Sandia chile peppers in there yesterday morning. After today's heat, the bush beans finally gave up, so that EarthTainer is next on my list to be cleaned out. I need to select a tomato to go in there, but which one? A Sun Gold, a Juliet, a Stupice, a Valencia, a Brandywine? If I let the kids decide, they'll choose a Sun Gold. I think I'd rather have a Brandywine. They take for-freaking-ever to come ripe in the field. Perhaps they'll be faster in the greenhouse.

The garden is fully planted now. It just needs weeding, watering, and harvesting, which should begin quite soon. The kale is growing full and bushy, and I have teensy 3-inch-long zucchinis. In this heat, they'll be ready to eat in a week. We tried digging for new potatoes on Father's Day, but they're still about the size of the last segment of my pinky finger. I need to bury those potatoes more. Maybe this weekend, when it's cooler.

This evening, I went out to turn on the irrigation and hand water the few areas that don't yet have drip tape or well-developed roots that reach the existing tape, and I discovered that the garden has been colonized by fireflies. So I finished the watering, slapping at mosquitos the whole way, came in, and wrote a poem about it.

It feels like the mad rush of spring is finally over and we can settle into the long summer routine: weed, water, eat, repeat.

Farmers' Market a Success

We went to the Beverly Farmers' Market today, not really knowing what to expect. Would we sell anything? Would we sell everything? It turned out to be right down the middle. We sold about half of what we brought and grossed $128. Minus the $30 fee for the space and the growing expenses, that's not a lot of profit. It was tremendous fun, though, chatting with the homemade pasta vendor to my left and the soap vendor to my right. Many people asked about our farm and were surprised at all that we had to offer. I loved them moments when someone would walk up, read a sign, and do a double take.

We'll go back next week, then run our expenses to see where we stand. I think that unless we have a serious bumper crop of veggies, we won't be returning to the market. However, I think we made some nice connections and can set up relationships where we grow only pre-ordered seedlings.

We're now down to only one or two of the following:
Tomato, Juliet
Pepper, Yankee Bell
Winter Squash, Kabocha
Summer Squash, Yellow Crookneck

And we sold out of Little Leaf cucumbers, Mexican oregano, and Sugar Pie pumpkins, of all things.

The greenhouse seems oddly empty now. That won't last; I still have squash, pepper, basil, and tomato seedlings in desperate need of larger pots. But not many. I should finish those up in a day or two. And then I'll have a couple months' respite from potting... until it's time to start in on fall seedlings. Meantime, our focus will shift to the garden and keeping ahead of the weeds. Will trade seedlings for a few bales of straw. ;)